Walking Tour of the City

I haven't posted much because we haven't really done a whole lot.  We go to the grocery store every couple of days or so, but other than that we've been staying close to the apartment trying to save money.  However, we decided to bite the bullet and pay for a tour of the WWII museum on Monday.  However, the museum was closed :(  So we did a walking tour of the historic part of Kiev instead.  And I'm so glad we did.  I've learned a lot about the history, but I also gained more confidence to find my way to the SDA.

Our first stop...the opera house, of course!  It's at the end of our street and I recognized it immediately from other blogger's pictures.  You can read more about the history and see more pictures here.  It's beautiful!

Across from the opera house is the German embassy.  On the very right side of the picture you can see what looks like a graffiti filled piece of art.  That's actually part of the Berlin wall! 

The next stop was the "Golden Gate" which was the main entrance to the city.  This cat sits near the road as a tribute to a cat who died saving his owner's restaurant.  Here's the rest of the story!

All over Kiev, you will find statues.  They love their art!  This is a cat made out of plastic forks.  Very inventive.

This beautiful building was built by one man and named by another.  Apparently the guy who built it spent twice as much on the decorations as the building itself!

 And this a side view of the "Golden Gate".  Information about this is here .

RAVENS!  In the city!  When heads will roll, ravens will follow :)

And we couldn't pass up a picture with the Ukrainian folklore Hedgehog!  Hedgehog Info AND Movie of folklore on this blog

The tour guide said this monument was funny because the Kosak is standing and the portions are a little off.

Saint Sophia survived soviet rule :)  Here's the complete story

Saint Michael's...we'll see more of this church in a minute.

A pagan statue.  Don't know much about this.

Princess Olga Monument

And Saint Michael's.  It's very ornate and it actually still functions as a sort of church.  While we were in there, a priest was reciting something.  And as women go in, they cover their heads out of respect. Read more here

And here is an amazing playground, something our tour guide said she would have never imagined during soviet rule.  She said all playgrounds were exactly the same (how boring!).  But this one is themed from Alice in Wonderland.

And just like the Belgium Peeing boy and Peeing girl, Ukrainians have their peeing dog!